Let’s get right to the point: Does a digital agency really want a platform that is going to surface all the errors on a site that they’re managing?
On a very surface level, I wouldn’t fault you for saying “No.”
But I think I might be able to change your answer by the end of this blog.
The State of eCommerce Site Errors
Researchers estimate that, on a global scale, anywhere between 58% and 94% of eCommerce sites have errors currently live on their web store.
I get that that’s a pretty wide variance, but I think we can agree that even if the true number lies closer to 58% than 94%, there’s a massive opportunity for web development work.
Why is it hard to quantify the number of sites with live errors? Only 10% of customers ever flag a site error or bug and notify a brand’s support team.
Digital Agencies and eCommerce Businesses
Digital agencies are typically brought in to either build or manage and maintain a company’s site infrastructure. So if something is broken on the web, a company could feasibly point the finger back at the agency… The question is, though, should they be pointing that finger at you?
Right out of the gate, it is critical for your agency customers to understand that there are many reasons why a company’s core eCommerce components may be malfunctioning. And for the most part, there is no single point of failure.
So, what is actually causing those errors to occur on site? With third-party integrations, different browser/OS/device types, and hundreds of user paths on a website, there are a lot of moving parts that are not in the retailer’s – or agency’s – control.
So no, the company shouldn’t really be pointing their finger at you. What they could, and should, be doing is looking to you for actionable insight and solutions.
Using Error Detection as a Sticky Business Offering
You probably have tools like HotJar, FullStory, and Dynatrace that are doing a fine job at monitoring your customers’ applications. They give you an idea of what’s happened – they even can point to specific errors. But there’s a massive portion of data missing from these platform reports – and this data could be the key to helping you build one of the strongest, most reliable partnerships between you and your customers.
That data is revenue impact.
In the past, development teams would create and send off a list of errors gathered either from customer tickets or through an app monitoring software. Bugs would be actioned based on how easy and quick they were to fix (as we can see in this case with Princess Auto), or if an executive had their name tied to it.
The priorities were not data-driven.
Imagine if instead of enduring the friction of your customer reporting a list of errors they found and want you to action, your team could proactively approach your customers with a list of solutions, prioritized by their impact to revenue and conversion rates.
With this, you’re creating a backlog of work for your own team – thus generating a recurring revenue stream – and developing an embedded conversation with your customers focused on business outcomes that will improve their conversions and revenue.
You can now position yourself more strategically as a revenue recovery partner rather than a cost center. You can realign your partnership to focus on conversion increases rather than hours used.
With this approach over time, you can also position your agency as a critical function in a company’s workflow. If a company knows they can have a foolproof way of detecting site errors, and they know they have a team that is constantly efficiently working to resolve barriers and improve conversion rates, it will create loyalty to your agency and make it difficult for them to go back to a black-boxed, customer-generated reporting system.
Why Noibu for Agencies
I’ve touched on a few of the reasons why a platform like Noibu could be a critical tool in your tech stack, including its ability to attribute a dollar amount to any given site error. There are of course many other reasons, but I won’t bore you with the full-fledged pitch. That’s not why you’re reading this. But do bear with me while I talk about one more functionality, because it really drives home a good point.
One of the main reasons why digital agencies experience churn is directly related to the agency’s inability to reproduce reported bugs. (*See infographic at the end of this blog)
Noibu eliminates that issue altogether. The solution has visual recordings of every error and provides the full stack trace developers need to accurately replicate and efficiently resolve the issue.
So, have I changed your mind on whether or not it’s a good idea to implement a tool that auto-detects and prioritizes site errors?
If not, let me leave you with an infographic with data gathered from our customers on their relationships with digital agencies both past and present.
As Porky Pig would say… That’s all, folks!
Interested in learning more about how agencies and Noibu can work together? Send our Partner Manager a message on LinkedIn or via email at jim.sourges@noibu.com
* Spending March 27-30 at ShopTalk in Las Vegas? You can also connect with Jim, in person, at Mandalay Bay.
